Increased Domestic Role for Intelligence Foreseen

INCREASED DOMESTIC ROLE FOR INTELLIGENCE FORESEEN

Spy satellites and other classified intelligence technologies are
poised to play a greater role in domestic homeland security and law
enforcement missions, challenging long-standing legal and policy
barriers against their domestic use.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that the Director of National
Intelligence recently authorized access to intelligence satellite
products by officials of the Department of Homeland Security to help
support border security.

See "U.S. to Expand Domestic Use of Spy Satellites" by Robert Block,
Wall Street Journal, August 15, p.1:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118714764716998275.html

A comprehensive 2005 government study of the use of intelligence
capabilities for domestic applications concluded that "significant
change is needed in policy regimes regulating domestic use of IC
[intelligence community] capabilities" in order to permit their full
exploitation.

"The use of IC capabilities for domestic purposes should be… based on
the premise that most uses of IC capabilities are lawful rather than
treating any use as an exception to the rule requiring a case-by-case
adjudication," the study said.

"There is an urgent need for a top-down, Executive Branch review of all
laws and policies affecting use of intelligence capabilities purposes,"
the report said.

In particular, the 1981 Executive Order 12333 which governs
intelligence activities "should be amended to permit as unfettered an
operational environment for the collection, exploitation and
dissemination [of domestic intelligence data] as is reasonably
possible," the report recommended.

The authors acknowledged that such "unfettered" operation would require
increased oversight, but they suggested that it could be satisfactorily
accomplished by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. The
Board has been a minor, not notably influential player in recent
intelligence policy disputes.

The report acknowledged in passing a problematic 2001 U.S. Supreme
Court ruling in the case Kyllo v. United States, which concluded that
the use of infrared sensors to scan a private residence for heat lamps
used in marijuana cultivation constituted an unlawful warrantless
search. The ruling appears to be significantly at odds with the new
domestic intelligence thrust.

"This decision has placed in question the continued viability of past
settled practice of the IC within the domestic domain," the study
delicately observed.

Nevertheless, "to date we are not aware of any clear authoritative
guidance issued on the impact, if any, of this decision."

The 2005 study was first reported by the Wall Street Journal today. A
copy of the unclassified study, which was "produced solely for the use
of the United States Government," was obtained by Secrecy News.

See "Civil Applications Committee (CAC) Blue Ribbon Study," Independent
Study Group Final Report, September 2005:

http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/cac-report.pdf

Intelligence support to domestic environmental monitoring and emergency
response has been conducted since the 1970s under the supervision of the
little-known interagency Civil Appplications Committee. A 2001 fact
sheet describing the history and mission of the Committee is available
here:

http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/cac-fs.pdf